Celebrating the Holidays
This month the LA Project Management meetup has decided to do things a little bit differently. In the spirit of the holidays, we thought this would be a great time to exercise our leadership skills in the real world, while doing something good and giving back to the community.
We will be exploring the topics that surround leadership, passion and inspiration – and what that means for your projects.
Please join us on Wednesday, December 10th in Marina del Rey for a very special LA Project Management Meetup.
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Not a member? Join the LA Project Management Meetup today!
December 3rd, 2008
Introducing New Forum Discussion Format
Please join us for our November LA Project Management Meetup in beautiful Marina del Rey!
For this month’s meetup, we will be conducting two forum discussions, lead by other Project Managers in our community.
The agenda is as follows:
* Ozlem Ulusoy-Chavez – Project Design
* Finney – Project Histories
By now we’re sure you all feel the change that’s in the air for our world, our nation and especially our industry. We are entering the next big evolution in Project Management, which makes this the perfect opportunity to solidify our community through this meetup.
Don’t be left behind – please come join us on Wednesday, November 12th in Marina del Rey!
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Not a member? Join the LA Project Management Meetup today!
November 5th, 2008
Join us for Knowledge Sharing and Networking
We had our first Meetup a while ago on July 30. It was good to meet everyone and from my point of view, it was a success!
This September 10th one will be our second. In this meeting, we’ll be finalizing our “charter,” intent, manifesto, our raison d’etre.
During our last meeting, we determined the top 2 goals for this Meetup are:
* Knowledge Sharing amongst the PM’s. This will take the form of discussions rather than presentations
* Networking
In this second meeting, in addition to finalizing our Charter, we’ll create a schedule of Knowledge Sharing discussions and if we have time left over, we’ll conduct one of those discussions.
The meeting will take place on Wednesday, September 10th at the same place as the first- Digital Onion’s offices.
There are now 39 members! Who’s coming?
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Not a member? Join the LA Project Management Meetup today!
September 3rd, 2008
LA Project Management Meetup
Please join Digital Onion for our inaugural meetup event. You can signup, RSVP and receive updates all at Meetup.com
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DATE: July 30, 2009
TIME: 7pm
PLACE: Marina del Rey
AGENDA
7:00 – Meet and Greet with Host, Tony Wong, and other attendees (food and beverage included)
7:15 – Introduction to the first Project Manager’s Meet-Up in Los Angeles!
7:30 – Presentation on a professional topic
8:00 – Round table discussion on state of profession
8:30 – Closing remarks
8:45 – Close the first Project Manager’s Meet-Up
July 15th, 2008
How I realized I would never quit.
How do you know you have that “never quit” attitude? Do you always achieve your goals? Do you always hit your targets?
I know I have the Not Dead, Can’t Quit attitude. But for me, that voice in my head said it in a different way. It said, “whatever you set your mind to, you get there No Matter What.” I’ve known I’ve had this attitude ever since 7th grade when Laura Kravitz’ mom was looking for her and I took it upon myself as the most important thing I had to do at that moment. I searched for Laura almost as if my life depended upon it. I think I did it because I took someone else’s need on as my own. I saw an opportunity to help someone else and I seized it. I didn’t question what I’d get out of it or how important it was – mind you I was 12 years old. I just committed to it and did it.
It was 3pm on a Friday afternoon and there were literally hundreds of kids being picked up by hundreds of moms in their cars. I had no idea where Laura was and frankly it wasn’t my problem. But that didn’t matter. Someone needed my help and so I would help her. No Matter What.
In short order, I found little Laura and brought her back to her mom. I brought her back as if it was something more important than just her mom looking for her to take her home. I felt it was my duty. Someone asked me to do something and I said yes. So I was damn sure I was going to do it and live up to my word.
This was a defining moment for me- trivial as it may seem. Even as I write this as an adult it sounds quite inconsequential. But in fact it wasn’t. It set in motion a way of thinking- a groove in my head that has served me to this day. In fact, it is the guiding principle in my own Point Man Leadership System and Mack’s Bukido Training System ®. When I pick a target, I don’t let anything stop me until I knock it down. Big or small, I apply this philosophy to whatever I choose to do.
This attitude continued to build throughout my career. There was one particular event that really solidified it for me and those around me. It was an event for which I became known as the company “action hero.” This was the first time my No Matter What attitude took hold in the business setting.
My career started in the Advertising industry in the early 90’s. This was a time when Advertising was still in its heyday. I worked for a top ad agency on a top automotive account. In fact, the account was the biggest and most prestigious automotive account in Los Angeles. It was early spring one year, and our team was presenting concepts for a multi, multi-million dollar campaign and the Executive Director forgot the presentation boards. The meeting started in 15 minutes and though our offices were only 8 miles away from the client, it was Los Angeles and the notorious 405 freeway stood in our way.
Having to drive on the 405 freeway means those 8 miles could turn into 30 minutes, 45 minutes or even hour long car ride! Since I was a junior member of the team, I was one of the only people still at the office. So when the call came, i picked up the presentation boards in their 3’ by 4’ “pizza bags” and started speeding away in my car towards the meeting. I weaved through traffic and hundreds of cars in record time. I had made it 7 miles through the dense Friday traffic in only 12 minutes! I was going to make it! I had 3 minutes to get there and only 1 more mile stood in the way. But as luck would have it, that last mile was a parking lot. All cars on the freeway had completely stopped.
My cell phone rang constantly with panicked calls from the executives at the meeting. I told them I was doing everything I could to get the boards there but it just wasn’t good enough. I was sitting in a mile-long traffic in line to exit on the off ramp. Aaah! Just one more mile! I had almost made it! But piles and piles of cars stood between me and my goal. It was so frustrating! I had almost made it! It was voice of resignation, of failure, of quitting that was creeping in. I kept thinking, I had almost made it. Right there, I was about to quit.
But then another voice in my head broke through. “You get there No Matter What!” it said. And in that moment, I decided I would get those boards to the meeting. My team was counting on me. So I pulled my car over on to the shoulder of the 5 lane 405 and got out. In suit and tie, I grabbed those large pizza bags and started running. You should have seen the stares I got from the other drivers waiting to get off the freeway. No matter. I may have looked funny or even ridiculous but that didn’t matter. I was going to deliver those bags No Matter What.
I ran in down the off ramp between rows and rows of stopped cars, through traffic lights, across boulevards larger than most city freeways. I had 2 minutes to get there. No time for cross walks, signal lights or even sidewalks. I blazed my own trail, hopping over city medians, through bushes, past security befuddled security cards and handed those boards over with only seconds to spare.
When I reached the team of executives all dressed in their Armani suits, they were no longer concerned about the boards. They had gotten word from my supervisor that I had just pulled over on the freeway and was running the boards to the meeting. “He’s doing what?” they asked the Supervisor. They too had begun to resign themselves to either postponing the meeting or making some lame excuse as to why they couldn’t have the meeting. But when they heard I was running the boards to there through freeway traffic – the word instantly spread. They even told our big automotive client that they had forgotten the boards but “no need to worry, our team delivers” – literally.
From what the execs told me, the campaign was already sold at that point. The client’s executive team stretching from Executive Vice-president on down through the ranks, were impressed. We won the pitch without ever pitching – because our team demonstrated that we deliver, No Matter What.
From humble beginnings in 7th grade through my business career, I’ve seen my No Matter What philosophy continue to develop and mature until it became the guiding light for me and my Point Man Leadership System. This philosophy of No Matter What is the backbone of everything we do in Point Man. As leaders of teams in business, once we set our eyes on a target, we get our team to the target – No Matter What. We do everything we can to get there because we made a commitment to ourselves and to each other to reach that target.
As leaders, we use our skills, our talents and our drive to make sure we serve our team members by not letting them down and get them to the goal. Because if we don’t, we’re just regular old workers, collecting a paycheck – that life may be fine for some but not for us. We committed to something greater. Something Extraordinary. For us, it’s Creating the Possibility of a World that Works.
With this one lesson, I know I will always make my dreams come true – I will always reach my goals. No Matter What! Not Dead, Can’t Quit.
College Example of No Matter What
This attitude served me throughout school. When I was in college, I spent the first two years partying my days and nights away until I woke up in the first trimester of my Junior year when I realized I didn’t know where the library was and found that I had accumulated only 1/3 the course units I should have. I was on track to graduate in 6 years! At that moment, I decided to graduate in 4 years No Matter What! I nearly doubled the standard amount of classes per trimester, I studied day and night. I even tacked on a double major of Business Economics and Asian Languages. I was committed to digging myself out the hole I created for myself and finishing my school work in the 2 remaining years I had left. I continued this pace for 2 years through each trimester and tacked on 2 full loads through BOTH summer sessions for those 2 years and graduated with honors – in two majors!
July 11th, 2008
Please join us at NDCQ.com today!
What is NDCQ®? It’s an acronym for Not Dead, Can’t Quit® – a philosophy adapted by my close friend Richard ‘Mack’ Machowicz from his time as a Navy Seal and Naval Special Warfare Scout/Sniper. The philosophy is centered on the single idea that the only thing that can stop you from your goals is IF YOU DIE. If you’re Not Dead, then the only left to stop you from reaching your target is you. You’re Not Dead, you Can’t Quit.
When I heard about this idea, I began to see applications for it in other areas of life, outside of the Military Special Forces. After many years in Project Management, I realized I had approached things all wrong. Instead of leading, I was managing. For myself and my teams, we weren’t realizing our full potential, our ability to be extraordinary. So, I saw a problem, how was I gonna fix it?
Mack and I took the principles of Not Dead, Can’t Quit®, and combined them with my experience and best business practices to come up with something entirely new to business management, a cutting-edge system: The Point Man® Leadership System. Now I was getting somewhere. This was something I knew could make a difference for individuals and companies alike, this became my goal, my target.
Determined to show others the possibility of an Extraordinary Business, through Extraordinary leadership, I founded Digital Onion, Inc. Through my company I set about teaching, consulting and guiding businesses with the Point Man® Leadership System. I called it transformational management; transforming management into leadership.
All of this brings me back to that original phrase, Not Dead, Can’t Quit®. No matter what the risks, what the work, what was known and unknown, I didn’t quit. I won’t quit. NDCQ.com brings it all home for me. Visit the site, learn about Mack, and connect with others who have found that every goal is reachable, if you’re willing to work for it.
July 2nd, 2008
I’ve been noticing that the trend to “leak-stopping” still continues. I guess it’s good for my business but really? Has the majority of project management practice not evolved at all? “Leak Stopping” in other words, is treating the symptoms instead of the disease. It’s the practice of adding more and more manpower or more and more process to the project management problems. This leads to the endless paper work, late nights, countless emails and project “managing” that you see in most companies – and definitely in every software/web dev consultancy I’ve either worked with or for.
I call it “leak stopping” because it’s akin to just plugging the leaks in the hull of a leaking boat while your buddy over there with a pick axe punches more and more holes in the hull. If someone is creating the leaks, it’s best to stop that person first and then go back and plug the holes. That’s treating the disease rather than just the symptoms.
Companies that come to me seeking project management help are stuck in the treatment of the symptoms. They come asking for recommendations on “process tools”- Basecamp is often mentioned. (BTW- they don’t actually mean process – they mean procedure- which is a step-by-step instruction manual.)
Other times, potential clients will ask for a “better project manager” or a “more senior project manager” to help fix their project troubles.
At best, they ask for a “project management process.” This would be a giant step in the right direction if what they were really asking for was a solution, a system to solve their problems. BUT, what I’ve found is, what they’re really asking for when they say “project management process” is…. A tool…like Basecamp.
What is successful in making projects more Profitable, more Efficient and Better Places to Work are Project Management Systems That’s what businesses are built on – systems. Not “leak-stopping” man power. Not adding more project managers or more process or even throwing out all process (I’ve seen companies get so frustrated that they tried that.)
What’s needed is a systematic approach to solving all the current AND future problems. A system for addressing any and all problems that anyone can step into or be trained in. Not just a group of experienced leak-stoppers that when they leave a company, take all the progress that’s been made with them.
May 5th, 2008
We’re happy to announce the Pilot launch of our project management training series. We’ve selected a few of our clients and industry contacts to receive a special offer to try the first in a series of training products, Point Man Project Design. In the coming months, you’ll see more and more training products from Point Man Project Design, The Foundation to Creating Profitable and Successful Projects to Point Man Wayfinding, How to Find Out How Your Project is Doing and How to Reach your Project Goals to Point Man Contract Creation, How to Write Project Contracts that Set You up for Success.
We chose to release Point Man Project Design first because in a recent study we conducted on successful projects, we found that 75% of critical project problems were attributed to poorly designed projects! The causes of the problems ranged from choosing the wrong team members for the project, under – or over – estimating the knowledge or capabilities of the Project Sponsor (the client) to poor goal setting – or not setting project goals at all.
What this told us is that 75% of these major project problems could have been avoided just by clearly considering the Project Success Criteria and then plainly adjusting the factors that impact those criteria.
If you’d like to know more, please email us at info@digitalonioninc.com and ask about our Point Man Project Design Pilot Program.
April 20th, 2008
Digital Onion is a Project Management consultancy committed to transforming Project Management in software development so that projects are Successful, Effortless and Fun. Our focus is on implementing systems that WORK, instead of those designed to create more overhead and more complexity. Our consulting works by looking at each client’s specific situation to SEE what’s really going on and then design a solution to quickly get their projects on the path to Success.
In so doing, we help our clients achieve the same for their projects and teams. We work with them to establish and maintain project management systems that produce EXTRAORDINARY TEAMS and EXTRAORDINARY PROJECTS. If this sounds at all like it’s too good to be true, it’s NOT! We encourage you to contact us and we’ll happily give you references from our clients that confirm what we’re saying.
In the coming days, you can expect to read practical and down to earth processes that will most definitely get your projects on the right track to success- without having that promise be dependent upon implementing a lot more procedure. This is our promise and we’ll deliver! You’ll see.
March 1st, 2008
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